2nd week in Belgrade, Serbia

My second week in Belgrade was not as eventful as my first week, but I still enjoyed.

I had a free day and took a day trip to Novi Sad and enjoyed the small city. It is on the Danube river as well as it was cool to see it partly frozen with large pieces of ice floating down it.

This city boast one of the largest fortresses. Unlike others that I’ve seen where it’s in ruins or just has a museum, this one has working buildings in it. It offers nice views of the city across the river.

Fortress at Novi Sad

Walking around, I was actually getting quite warm even though the temperature was around freezing and snow was all around. It was nice to feel overdressed for once though.

Novi Sad has some squares that connect several pedestrian shopping streets. This part of the city was quite beautiful. The buildings were quite colorful with pastel colors making me forget how gloomy the sky was.

Christmas markets in one of the squares

Synagogue

View from the top of the fortress

Hands are switched to confuse pirates

They still had their Christmas markets, which is weird to me, but I’m not complaining as I really like that season. Serbia celebrates Christmas on January 7th and New Years on the 14th according to the Orthodox church meaning their markets are later than the rest of Europe. They still celebrate New Years on the 1st as well.

I walked through the Danube Park and they had a decent size skating rink that had trails so you didn’t have to just skate in circles.

The train and bus are right next to each other and share a ticket counter. They both take about the same amount of time from Belgrade. The train takes slightly longer at almost 2 hours, but the train is apparently cheaper, but definitely more comfortable. They both run pretty frequently. Make sure to buy the ticket at the counter because on board is a lot more expensive.

I walked around the other parts of the city, leaving the pastel colors behind. These buildings were not as pretty as those in the center, which was interesting to see and compare.

There is a path by the river, which looked like it would be a lovely stroll during the summer.

It was a nice short day trip.

On Friday, I was invited to a house party by my new Russian friend, O. I took F with me and he commented,

“This is my first time at an international party in Serbia.”

And it was true, there was no one majority of nationality. People were from all over- Pakistan, Angola, UK, Serbia, Russia, USA, etc.

After, F was telling me about the nightlife in Belgrade. They used to have a more vibrant one, but the UAE/Dubai bought the land where the bars and clubs used to be and now there’s significantly less.

Dubai is investing in Belgrade and trying to create a waterfront, a nice area along the river. Lot of the locals do not like it.

He took me to one place and we had a great time!

With another Serbian friend, D, she took me on her errands and it was fun tagging along. We talked about a variety of things such as her life in the city and I got her perspective on the Serbian shopping culture. She was telling me that prices are more than they should be for the salary.

Sunset at Kalemegdan

I went to the Yugoslavia History museum one day. One needs to take bus 40 or 41 to get there, it’s a bit far to walk. The ticket gives you entry into three buildings. The first building you come across is about the people and culture of Yugoslavia and the other two are about Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia. The second building houses all the gifts given to him and the third has his tomb. It was pretty informative.

Tito’s tomb

Gifts to Tito

Memorial

Nato Bombed building

The days have been pretty nice- still cold, but sunny and I’ve been enjoying running and walking around. I saw the memorial to the Holocaust victims in the concentration camp in Belgrade and those throughout Europe. I also passed by more NATO bombed buildings.

Yugoslavia Museum

The weather is supposed to get warmer this week/weekend and I am really looking forward to it, maybe Spring is coming soon? Shortish post, but looking forward to my last week here!